Meet Yalda Hakim, the Afghanistan-born news anchor who grilled several Pakistani ministers

Yalda Hakim in interview with Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif

Amid ongoing tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan's involvement in terrorism has once again come under international scrutiny. A journalist and TV presenter recently drew attention for directly confronting Pakistani ministers with tough, uncomfortable questions.

Yalda Hakim, a journalist has gone viral  for her hard-hitting interviews with top Pakistani ministers, challenging their long-standing denials about promoting terrorism.

In a widely circulated interview on April 24, Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif acknowledged on-air that the country had provided support, training, and funding to terrorist groups. He attributed this involvement to fulfilling the West’s "dirty work," effectively shifting the responsibility onto Western nations.

We have been doing the dirty work of the United States for three decades.
Pakistans Defence Minister Khawaja Asif spoke to me last night in a remarkable and wide ranging interview about the escalating situation in Kashmir. India is blaming Pakistan who says there is no pic.twitter.com/QzHM6d3CsG Yalda Hakim (@SkyYaldaHakim) April 25, 2025

In subsequent interviews, she also confronted Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar. While Tarar denied the presence of terrorist camps in the country, she pushed back by citing remarks made by Pakistan’s own defence minister. 

There are no terrorist camps in Pakistan says Pakistans Information Minister Attaullah Tatar.I spoke to him as India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory in several locations early Wednesday. India says it is targeting terrorist infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/3ZOEww5dkK Yalda Hakim (@SkyYaldaHakim) May 7, 2025

"In fact, in 2018, President Donald Trump cut military aid to Pakistan because he accused Pakistan of playing a double game. So when you say there are no terrorist camps in Pakistan, that is going against what General Paris Musharraf has said, what Benazir Bhutto has said, what your Defense Minister said just a week ago," Hakim told Tarar.

Who's Yalda Hakim? 

Yalda Hakim was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and fled with her family to resettle in Australia as a refugee. She began her journalism career with SBS World News Australia and rose to global prominence through her fearless reporting from conflict zones including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, Iraq, and Darfur.

She is currently the anchoring The World with Yalda Hakim on Sky News, where she presents the primetime program on weekdays at 9pm.

Before Sky News she used to work as a lead presenter on BBC World News, where she hosted Impact with Yalda Hakim and became known for her high-profile interviews with figures including Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Antony Blinken, Bill Clinton, Justin Trudeau, Sheikh Hasina, Joko Widodo, and Ashraf Ghani.

She conducted a live on-air interview with Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen in 2021, during a moment of intense crisis as Kabul fell to the Taliban and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country—an interview that made global headlines.

Her direct and probing questions brought international attention to her commitment to journalistic accountability.

Apart from being a journalist, she is a documentary filmmaker with investigative work covering topics like ISIS operations in Iraq, human trafficking in Yemen, and foreign interference in US elections.

She is also a strong advocate for women’s rights and education. In 2018, she launched the Yalda Hakim Foundation, which supports Afghan women through scholarship programs, including partnerships with institutions such as Oxford University.

Multilingual and deeply engaged in South Asian affairs, Hakim is fluent in English, Dari, Urdu, Hindi, Persian, and Pashto, and is currently studying Mandarin.